Warning over devious WhatsApp scammers stealing cash from users by posing as family members

A NEW warning has been issued about a WhatsApp scam that sees cyber criminals pose as family members to steal your money.

Suffolk Trading Standards in the UK has had to issue the warning after a mother from the area received a scam WhatsApp message claiming to be from her daughter.

According to the East Anglian Daily Times, a woman from Kessingland, near Lowestoft, received a WhatsApp message from an unknown number.

The unknown number claimed to her daughter.

Her 'daughter' claimed to have dropped her phone down the toilet and said she was using a new number.

Scammers often use elaborate excuses like this to try to impersonate someone.

The fake daughter then said she needed to borrow money to pay a bill because she couldn't access her account.

The scammer asked for £1,980.

Fortunately, the mother did not fall for the scam.

She contacted her daughter via her partner and confirmed the messages were a scam.

If you receive a suspicious message from someone you know you should always ring the person to check it's actually them or verify their identity through other means.

A spokeswoman for Suffolk Trading Standards said: "If you receive a suspicious message (even if you think you know who it's from), calling or requesting a voice note is the fastest and simplest way to check someone is who they say they are."

One man lost £1,500 to the scam

A 75-year-old man recently told The Sun of his anger after scammers on WhatsApp fooled him into sending them hundreds of pounds.

Hoodwinked retiree John (not his real name) lost £1,500 to cunning cyber crooks posing as his granddaughter on the popular messaging service.

Fortunately, his bank agreed to refund him the money after being contacted by The Sun.

"[Losing the money] wouldn't have ruined Christmas," said John, "but it would have been severely curtailed as we are not a rich family."

He considers himself pretty scam-savvy and had never fallen for one before.

This one was particularly convincing, however, because the conman knew his granddaughter's name and was able to WhatsApp his son's work phone – the number for which is strictly only shared with colleagues and close family.

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In other news, a new Instagram hoax is trying to steal logins by faking a "copyright violation".

Scammers are using Google Alerts to send out links to malware.

Video chat app Zoom will offer free and paying users end-to-end encryption.

And, Windows 10 users are being told to update their PC to escape an 'Eternal Darkness' flaw.

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